


baby, it's cold outside

by morbidsama



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Cabin Fic, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Locked In, M/M, Sleepy Cuddles, They get snowed in together its cute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:01:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23109658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morbidsama/pseuds/morbidsama
Summary: the kaiba brothers get invited to a winter vacation with the dweeb squad. yugi & company get snowed out of the cabin while grocery shopping in the next town over, and kaiba and honda get snowed in. honda decides that if they're forced to spend time together, they might as well have fun.cute fluffy stuff! trying not to make it a super slow burn but we'll see. i don't usually write this pairing but i hope its ok!commission for @gaykaiba on twitter! ongoing but almost done!
Relationships: Honda Hiroto | Tristan Taylor/Kaiba Seto
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. vacation: all i never wanted

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GayKaiba](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GayKaiba/gifts).



Kaiba had agreed to go on this trip for one reason only: Mokuba had asked him to. He didn’t need to “relax” or “have fun” or “make friends,” despite what others might tell him; Seto Kaiba was perfectly happy being on his own, working hard, and minding his own business. But he’d make exceptions for one person, and that one person had asked. If anything, Kaiba valued family _almost_ as much as he valued his first-edition ultra-rare holographic Blue Eyes White Dragon. Almost.  
  
A weekend at a cabin in the middle of nowhere with Yugi and his dweeb squad didn’t exactly sound like fun. Nonetheless, Kaiba found himself squished in the backseat of a van between Jonouchi and Honda (“You’re a goddamn twig, Kaib’, you have to sit in the middle!”), headed to a cabin in the middle of nowhere. At least he’d be getting away from work for a week, although he wasn’t exactly thrilled about that, either. If Yugi’s gang got Kaiba away from the office, it usually meant that Mokuba would be in charge—but Mokuba was right alongside them all. Kaiba said a quiet prayer to any higher beings that might be listening that the office would still be standing by the time they got back.  
  
Still, everyone in the group had tried and tried to convince him that this would be fun. And as much as he wanted to ask what could be fun about being put on a mountainside in the freezing cold with no internet, bad phone service, and no contact with anyone but the dweeb squad for a full week, he held his tongue. If he was going to be forced into this trip, he could at least try to be civil with everyone else (is what Mokuba had told him before they left, anyway; he had absolutely no qualms about starting a fight on this ‘vacation’).  
  
After a long car trip up to the mountains, they’d arrived at their cabin. Everyone clambered out of the van, relieved at being able to stretch their legs, as Anzu had insisted that they stop as little as possible on the way. While everyone helped to get their bags out of the trunk, Kaiba stood awkwardly off to the side, observing the surroundings and the outside of the cabin. He had to admit that it was a pretty nice place, especially for what they’d paid—everyone had pitched in on the bill for the place, and although Kaiba and Mokuba could have easily covered the price for everyone, Yugi’d declined the offer. According to him, friends taking vacations together split costs. It was, apparently, part of the fun and a show of friendship. Kaiba thought that was kind of ridiculous, but everyone else seemed to be fine with it, so he went along too. No use sticking his neck out for the dweebs without reason.  
  
“You gonna help with this?”  
  
Honda’s voice snapped Kaiba back to reality. He’d been so focused on overthinking the trip, he hadn’t noticed the others struggling to get everything out of the car. In typical fashion, he glared at the luggage crammed into the back of the van and grimaced.  
  
“Unloading luggage is below me. I’ll grab my own bags, but you’re on your own for the rest,” he replied, and Honda didn’t look thrilled with his answer. Actually, of the few times that Kaiba had seen Honda get actually pissed, this looked like one of them.  
  
“So we invite you out here and you repay us by refusing to help?”  
  
Kaiba was about to retaliate when Mokuba shot him a look that was half-pleading, half- _Seto, don’t you dare start a fight on this trip._ Sighing, he took a few steps towards the trunk and looked tentatively at the bags.  
  
“Well?” Honda asked with a tone of expectation in his voice. Kaiba half expected the guy to shove him towards the van. He took a bag off of the top of the pile reluctantly and set it down in the grass alongside the rest. This felt like defeat. Honda laughed, and Kaiba felt a little insulted.  
  
“Maybe Honda’ll put you to work around here, rich boy,” Jonouchi chimed in, and Kaiba scoffed incredulously in reply. Honda, on a roll, couldn’t resist a jab at Jou, and responded with, “He’s not the only lazy asshole around here. You could use some hard work, too.” Both boys, having been scolded by Hiroto Honda of all people, silently busied themselves with unloading the rest of the van. Soon, they were all lugging their own bags into the cabin. Kaiba was sweating despite the cold weather as they climbed the slight hill of the dirt driveway up to the front door; he wasn’t exactly accustomed to physical labor, and he’d perhaps packed a little much for the trip. Didn’t ever hurt to be prepared though, he’d said in justification to Mokuba while packing. His little brother had riffed, “Of course, who knows when you’ll need your Louis Vuitton heeled boots out in the sticks, big bro?” Kaiba stood by his decision to pack them anyway.  
  
The inside of the cabin was nice, if not a little musty. It was furnished tastefully for a cabin, Kaiba thought, with a nice television and a woven rug and finished wooden tables. The couches looked like they had been well used but also well taken care of, and though the place smelled a bit like pine and moth balls, it was kind of charming in its simplicity. There were so many windows that they really had no need to turn on the lights, which Kaiba quite liked. He’d always designed his offices to let in plenty of natural sunlight, finding the buzz of florescent lighting headache-inducing; it was no different at home, where Mokuba would tease him for living half in the dark like a vampire.  
  
In any case, it was about as good of a first impression as a cabin could make. After seeing his new digs for the week and setting his luggage in his room, Kaiba thought that perhaps in this slightly stuffy old place, maybe he might actually manage to relax a little. Stop worrying so much. Be less self-conscious around Yugi and his friends, or at least wind down enough to get along with them without it feeling like a huge chore. This week was going to be nice, damn it.  
  
What he didn’t anticipate was for everything to come crashing down before blooming into something new entirely.


	2. silence then coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which kaiba and honda are left alone and have to find something to talk about.  
> i saw a while ago this headcanon that kaiba and honda mainly talk about tech together and that made its way into this fic because i really liked it!

A day into their trip, the crew had already started to run low on food. Turns out that when you put six young people in a cabin for a week, a few days’ worth of groceries for one did not last very long. Yugi’d been tasked with grocery shopping for the trip, and boy was he held responsible once they were down to the last bag of chips in the kitchen. Anzu insisted that she’d warned Yugi about this happening, but Yugi had denied and denied and denied (with the help of Jou and Honda) until she’d gotten tired of trying to prove her point, and instead suggested that they all just go grocery shopping together. The nearest grocery store was nearly half an hour away, in the heart of the small mountain town that their cabin outskirted.  
  
Kaiba, naturally, refused to go. He didn’t do grocery shopping—he had people for that. He didn’t know the first thing about navigating a supermarket in Domino City, much less a shabby general grocery in the middle of some rural town. The last thing he wanted to do was surround himself with more people, and he had the feeling that he’d try to use his Kaiba Corporation credit card only to have some hillbilly tell him no. “Cash Only” sure was a thing out in the sticks. Mokuba, however, jumped at the chance; the kid loved going grocery shopping for some reason, even back home. He was much more grounded than his older brother, and saw the grocery run as a “bonding moment” with the rest of the gang (or at least, that’s how he tried to unsuccessfully pitch the errand to Kaiba, who reminded him that he’d said the same about the entire vacation and they’d have plenty of time to bond later).  
  
As everyone else got ready to go, Kaiba lounged in the living room with a cup of fresh black coffee, watching a light snow begin to fall over the mountainside through the windows. The rest of the group was almost out the door before Jonouchi, ever trying to pick a fight with Kaiba, cracked a joke that would result in a very unfortunate situation.  
  
“How do we know Rich Boy here won’t up and leave us while we’re runnin’ errands?”  
  
Kaiba rolled his eyes.  
  
“You’re taking the van, moron,” he shot back, but this obvious fact didn’t deter Jonouchi from his accusation.  
  
“And? You can have a fuckin’ helicopter here in like, an hour, probably. It’ll take us that long just to get there and back. Someone stay here and keep watch over Moneybags so he don’t go flyin’ off on us.”  
  
Another eyeroll from Kaiba, mirrored by Anzu, who was eager to get the gang on the road. She spoke up as the mediator for the group.  
  
“Okay, how about this? Someone volunteer to stay with Kaiba so we can get on with shopping. If we don’t go soon, the snow might pick up, and then we’ll really be out of luck. We need to hurry before we’re stuck here without food.”  
  
A general sigh floated its way through the group. Honda stepped forward.  
  
“I guess I’ll save the day, then. You guys go ahead, okay?”  
  
Everyone agreed to leave Honda to babysit their favorite billionaire and set off down the mountain towards the town. Neither of them seemed too happy about the situation (or rather, Kaiba especially felt like he was being punished for wanting to stay behind), but here they were, both situated on the couch and watching the snowfall thicken on the windowsills.  
  
After ten minutes of uncomfortable silence, Kaiba picked up a book off the coffee table while Honda got up to stoke the fireplace. They went about their tasks for a few minutes before Honda decided that he couldn’t take it anymore. If he was gonna be stuck here with Kaiba, they were gonna act like friends, damn it. They’d known each other for years, they’d talked and hung out countless times, and here was a grown man refusing to speak or be personable at even the barest level, acting like a fucking baby because he didn’t want to go to the grocery store.  
  
“What’re you reading?” he led with. Kaiba looked up, visibly bit back a sarcastic remark, and replied in his best ‘I’m-totally-not-pouting-right-now’ voice.  
  
“Programming book. I’m trying to come up with some new code that could improve the VR-factors of Duel Disks, make them a little less likely to glitch out during longer duels, you know? I haven’t really figured it out yet. They can handle a lot, but even machines with high processing power are prone to overload.”  
  
“Do you ever stop working?”  
  
“No,” Kaiba answered as if proud of himself for being underslept, overcaffeinated, and possibly obsessed with his job to the point of some kind of psychosis.  
  
“Well…” Honda trailed, looking for a way to keep the conversation from dying off. Kaiba wasn’t exactly one to contribute to a lively back-and-forth, especially in a sour mood; Honda knew this, and he’d be sure to make the other man give in to a conversation eventually. “Have you considered that it’s not a software issue? Did you check the hardware? You’ve got micro-processors running a huge amount of data in a really short timespan, under a lot of stress and variables, right? Maybe it’s not the software causing the glitch.”  
  
“Since when are you a computer expert?” Kaiba asked in an accusing, slightly shocked tone.  
  
“Come on, dude, you know I like to work with machines and stuff.”  
  
“A motorcycle and a computer are _not_ the same thing.”  
  
Honda sighed with the smallest amount of frustration. Kaiba could be so damn hard-headed sometimes—part of it was just the typical Seto Kaiba ™ attitude, and part of it was his bad mood at the moment—and it was taking all of Honda’s energy to remain somewhat civil. Kaiba knew that Honda was good with computers, good with code. He’d built his own PC and had even come to Kaiba with a couple questions about it, though maybe the other man hadn’t made the connection between the questions and a personal build (but he was practically a certified genius, so Honda couldn’t see why he wouldn’t). Maybe he was just teasing because of his mood. Maybe this was Kaiba’s way of being… friendly?  
  
They talked like this for a little while longer, Honda offering some friendly suggestions to check the hardware of the Disks and Kaiba being generally dismissive and annoying, but Honda felt that perhaps things weren’t going too badly. He had, after all, brought the room from an awkward silence to a pleasant chat. The fireplace began to warm the room comfortably, and Kaiba set his book aside and rose from his place on the couch.  
  
“I’m making coffee. Do you want anything.” The question did not sound like a question, but rather a demand of Honda to request something to drink so Kaiba’d have something to do.  
  
“Uhhh… sure. Two sugars and a little cream?”  
  
“Weak.”  
  
“You drink your coffee black, right? Like your _soul,_ ” teased Honda, dramatically draping an arm over his forehead.  
  
“Yes,” Kaiba said flatly, refusing to acknowledge the cliché, “I’ll be right back.”  
  
“I’ll go with you. I might get lonely after our thrilling conversation,” Honda offered, hopping up from the armchair he’d been seated at and following Kaiba to the kitchen. Kaiba didn’t reply, either from lack of caring or his refusal to play into Honda’s sarcasm. The slender brunette threw open the cabinets like a Disney princess throwing open the windows of a castle: much too elegantly and with a dramatic flair. Honda wondered how Mokuba dealt with this on an everyday basis. He was making coffee, for Christ’s sake.  
  
“So,” Kaiba began while taking out two mugs and the last of their coffee beans from the cabinet, “If it was a hardware issue, where do you suggest I start? The processors themselves, or perhaps a check on how they’re set in the machine? Do you think they could be overloading because of a poor cooling system rather than a problem with the processor itself?”  
  
“Could be,” Honda replied, a hint of surprise in his voice. Kaiba was taking him seriously now. “Have you looked for that, or are you taking guesses? You know I’m not a huge Duelist like you or Yugi, I don’t have too much experience with them in a practical sense.”  
  
“Just thinking about the specs. I haven’t modified the actual design in a while, and I’m wondering if there’s something I missed.”  
  
“You? Miss something? You’re obsessed with your work. I’ve heard tales of your all-nighters. Or should I say 72-hour coffee fueled work binges?”  
  
“Did Mokuba tell you about that?”  
  
“Yugi.”  
  
“Damn it.”  
  
“He heard from Mokuba, though.”  
  
 _“Damn it.”_  
  
“You know, you should watch your health. Doing shit like that makes you age faster. We’re only in our twenties, you can’t go burning out with a whole life ahead of you.”  
  
“I have a whole company under me. I do what needs to be done,” Kaiba replied, grinding the coffee beans a little too hard. He was getting defensive.  
  
“You have… well, I mean…” Honda bit back the _‘you have a problem’_ he’d started with, knowing that’d end in absolute disaster. “Some of us—all of us—we get worried about your health. You go for days or weeks under a new project, locked in your bedroom or the office or wherever literally obsessed with your work. You gotta, like… pace yourself. Rest. That’s part of the reason we invited you out here.”  
  
Kaiba dumped the coffee beans into the filter and loaded it into the machine, almost slamming it shut before clicking it on. He looked like a startled, wounded animal. Honda was guessing that other than Mokuba, the poor guy didn’t have anyone to show him genuine concern.  
  
“I am fine. I know what I’m doing. Are you going to help with the processor problem or not.” Again, that flat tone which sounded more like a demand than a question.  
  
Ah, so help on his projects was fine by him, but help with his mental (emotional?) state was not. The guy screamed “unresolved trauma,” and apparently Honda had hit a nerve. He decided this was not the best way to spend their free time.  
  
“Okay, okay,” He replied with the gentle demeanor of someone trying very hard to stay calm while defusing a bomb, “If you want my actual opinion, I’ll need to see the specs for the latest model.”  
  
“I have them in my bag. Let me finish the coffee first.”  
  
“Oh my God.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“You brought your hardware specs on vacation with you?”  
  
“Are you really shocked?” It was a question that didn’t require an answer; of course he wasn’t. Still, sometimes Kaiba’s work ethic was a bit unbelievable. Kaiba finished the coffees and they filed into the living room; he sat both cups on the table in front of the couch, side by side. One black, one with two sugars and a little cream. Honda didn’t take the invitation for granted, plopping down on the couch while Kaiba went to retrieve the blueprints for the latest Duel Disk designs. He sat down and spread the papers across the table, taking a sip of his coffee and setting it to the side to make room for the stack of documents.  
  
Honda wondered idly if Kaiba had ever allowed anyone to sit this close to him before.


End file.
